I didn't see a thread like this on the board and since I'm aiming to be a librarian in the not so distant future, I thought it was a shame. ^^

I know some of you like the Harry Potter series so I thought I'd rec a new book that was very similar in genre;

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One) by Patrick Rothfuss
not a YA or children's book but it has a similar subject matter (magic school)

For YA fans;
Terrier by Tamora Pierce
Really good (and mature) fantasy that mixes mystery, fantasy, and police work.

What are your new recs?

Right now I'm re-reading "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. Its one of the very few works of fiction on the official US Army Officer Professional Reading List. Its about the '300' spartans at Thermopylae- but this book came well before the movie. Any student of military history knows this battle well, and this take on it emphasizes the warrior ethos. A lot of the themes in the book ring true to what it means to be a US Soldier in times like this, where politics and public opinion can lead us to question why. Bad ass book.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan. And if you've ever even had a passing intrest in his books you should run, not walk, to pick up the Dark Tower series.

I started the first one when I was in highschool and read the rest as they were released. The forward on the third one led me to believe that he would have to live to 200 in order to finish the series at the rate he was going. But that all changed when he was hit by a car and almost didn't pull through.

It's fantasy/horror based and he does things in this series that I really didn't think you were allowed to do in a book.

I read the first book in the Dark Tower series. I did enjoy it and probably will read the rest one day. King's Eyes of the Dragon is still one of my all time favoirte books.

I just finished Catch-22 and LOVED IT! Hi-larious.

The first two Earthsea books I liked a lot. I've heard mixed reviews on the others in the series so I haven't read them yet.

I just finished the Dark Tower series!! What a fantastic story. I also love Stephen King. But even if you are not a fan, the Dark Tower books are not like his other books, so give it a shot!

OK, you guys have inspired me to finally finish the Dark Tower series; I haven't read Wolves of the Calla or later; now that they're all out, I guess I should. I used to be a big Stephen King fan, then I made the mistake of reading too many books by him in a row, and that's never a good idea. I really liked the earlier books in the Dark Tower series (although the initial short stories I thought were kinda hit or miss), and loved the tie-in in Insomnia. Now to find the time...

My recommendation: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. MUCH better than it's sorta-prequel, American Gods. Really non-typical fantasy fiction; it's about primitive gods that walk among us, voodoo, and other cool stuff.

And if you've got a lot of time on your hands, I really enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, a great blend of history, intrigue, and cryptography.

Hehe, I just finished The Name Of The Wind about 3-4 weeks ago, FANTASTIC book. Already waiting for book 2 next April.

And if you've got a lot of time on your hands, I really enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, a great blend of history, intrigue, and cryptography.

I see your Cryptonomicon and raise you Snow Crash.

I see your Cryptonomicon and raise you Snow Crash.

You know, I keep meaning to read that, and for some reason never get around to it. I MUST.do so soon. I also want to read Gibson's last two books (Pattern Recognition and Spook Country), I've heard they're really good (although not sci-fi); any of you read 'em?

I was a fan of Simon R Green's very cheesy space opera series, the Deathstalker books.

I knew I would like them when the evil, genuinely terrifying Empress (who is called the Iron Bitch TO HER FACE) has some terrorists crash her throne room, and fling a cream pie at her.

Let's see. Glen Cook's The Black Company series is very stark, kinda dark-and-bleak fantasy about a troop of mercenaries. He pulls no punches. There is almost no humor in his books, but there are some weirdly appropriate pretty spots.

Steven Erikson has a series called the Mazalan Book of the Fallen, which starts with The Gardens of the Moon. I have no idea where he's going with this series, but I figured that it would be fun to find out, since he has a policy worse than GRRM for killing off the characters you thought would be untouchable, and there's this character called Anomander Rake who is a forty-man raid boss carrying orange weapons.

I just made Frenial read Steven Brust's first three Vlad Taltos novels. They're tricky reading because Brust can't figure out what exactly his style is until the middle of the third book, but they're still kind of cool - first-person narrative comic-booky assassin in a land of elves.

Stranger and I are the only ones in the whole world who liked Tanith Lee's Tales of the Flat Earth. This is because Tanith Lee is Anne Rice on acid, sans vampires, plus demons. AWESOME!

The Dark Tower is one of my favorite series of all time. I cried like a baby all during Books Six and Seven, while simultaneously going, "the gunslinger is too badass TO LIVE."

I should also recommend a series of hilarious graphic novels -- The Dungeon series. They're basically a spoof on the D&D genre, although they're also quite poignant at times. They're originally in French, but being a boring monolingual American, I read the English translations. The author's name is Lewis Trondheim. There are several different "series" taking place at different times -- it's best to start with the Zenith series (the first book is called Duck Heart).

Right now I'm re-reading "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. Its one of the very few works of fiction on the official US Army Officer Professional Reading List. Its about the '300' spartans at Thermopylae- but this book came well before the movie. Any student of military history knows this battle well, and this take on it emphasizes the warrior ethos. A lot of the themes in the book ring true to what it means to be a US Soldier in times like this, where politics and public opinion can lead us to question why. Bad ass book.

And the graphic novel on which "300" is based came out before "Gates of Fire."

And the graphic novel on which "300" is based came out before "Gates of Fire."

Which was itself based on "The 300 Spartans."

Science fiction:
- Alastair Reynolds's series of books Revelation Space, Chasm City and Redemption Ark. (There's a fourth, Absolution Gap, which isn't as good as the first three.) Wild futuristic ideas and great characters. I'm currently reading Pushing Ice, another of his books, and it's turning out well so far.
- Dan Simmons's Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion. Great sci-fi and storytelling with some Keats thrown in for good measure.
- Peter Watts's Starfish and Maelstrom. These may not be for everyone - the stories and main character are very dark and a bit disturbing, but the atmosphere he builds is really good.

Fantasy:
George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, whatever else he may decide to add to the series). A list of characters longer than your arm, many of which you grow to love dearly (until he kills them off unexpectedly), a little plot twist here, a little magic there. Great stories.

Humour:
If you haven't read any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, what the heck are you doing in this guild? You can generally jump in almost anywhere in the series without too much disorientation, but it helps to read them from the start. My favourites are Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad.
In the same vein, Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) is hilarious.

Which was itself based on "The 300 Spartans."

Which was based on history & Herodotus.

Beat that, you story adapting freaks!

^ Peer Pressure 4 Life!

Favorite sci-fi book that no one's read: China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh
Favorite book that everyone starts & no one finishes: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Which was based on history & Herodotus.

Beat that, you story adapting freaks!

Exactly. Which is kinda what my original point was- that despite this being 'popular' and 'cool' now, its still really good. The story itself always has been.

If anyone here besides Vir and I is a History nrrrrd, I'm reading Assassination Vacation now and it's got so much yummy, yummy assassination (US Presidents) info. Fun book. :)

Peer Pressure goin 2 hump yer ottoman PEACE!

If anyone here besides Vir and I is a History nrrrrd, I'm reading Assassination Vacation now and it's got so much yummy, yummy assassination (US Presidents) info. Fun book. :)

Peer Pressure goin 2 hump yer ottoman PEACE!

SPEAKING OF HISTORY NERDS, Guy Gavriel Kay wrote a book that is fantasy Spain, only not, called "The Lions of al-Rassan" and everyone in the whole world should read it. TELL THEM, ING.

Wow, Fren, great taste imho. I was gonna mention Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion -- they were fantastic, weren't they? I haven't read the Endymion followups; heard they weren't as good. And of course Pratchett is always good for a laugh, although I made the mistake (as I did with Stephen King) of reading too many of them in a row, and kinda burned out on them -- they can get a bit redundant humourwise. I read my older daughter the Wee Free Men when she was about 8; she loved my faux-Scottish accent.

Which was based on history & Herodotus.

Beat that, you story adapting freaks!

The thing about Herodotus is... he made up what he didn't get via hearsay.

Greek historians were not much concerned with primary sources.

Just got finished with Reading Lolita in Tehran. If you're a non-fiction, literary geek who likes autobiographical political stories... uhm. Yeah. Not bad.

For the Dark Tower fans (I've never read any of 'em, incidentally), I just finished a group of King's short stories, one of which is a Dark Tower ... uhm ... prequel? Interlude? Something like that. Not having read the series, I don't know where it fits in. The collection is 1408, I think. Same title as the recent movie adaptation of one of the stories. A good collection, overall. I tend to read in bed at night, which puts me to sleep quickly, so short stories FTW. :)

Next up are a couple of Dean Koontz paperbacks that I picked up at the used book store last week. Velocity, I think. And ... something else. Can't see it on the kitchen table from here.

@ fox
I've read the first couple in the Dark Tower series. Loved the first. The rest were kinda blah. Much prefer IT. Scared the bejusus out of me.

Isn't there a comic version of DT? Heard a rumor somewhere.

@ Rastus
Love Gaiman though weirdly enough my favorite is still Coraline.

@ Lemmin
The graphic novel of 300 scared me. Little peeners coming at you on like every page. Though I did like what Alan Moore said about it. ^^

@ Lux
Isn't that the Vowel book? I love her. She led me to Augusten Burroughs who made me laugh at killing children and David Sedaris who made me laugh at sticky naked men.

You all are pissing me off, because I haven't sat down to read a book in ages. Okay, you're not really pissing me off, I just wish I had the time to read more. I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on. Now it's "Kittens First Full Moon", "Santa's Stuck" and Disney storybooks. Guess that's what happens when you have kids.

The last thing I read was the Hobbit and then the Lord of the Rings when the movies came out. Yes, I did read them when I was a kid, but I read them again before seeing the movies (which, by the way, Peter Jackson did an awesome job on ). I always have a book by my bed. I read a few pages and fall asleep.

Jane sees Spot run. Run Spot run...